Disagreement Over "Wounded" Aoudad in California

Published: February - 2013

Subscriber Roger L. Gregg is unhappy with a California aoudad hunt with Anderson Taxidermy and Guide Service. Gregg booked the hunt based on a 2004 article he read in The Hunting Report (Article ID 1357). He says guide Don Anderson raised the price by $1,000 after he placed his deposit and that lodging and meals ended up costing him an additional $500. The crux of his complaint, however, is a disagreement over whether he actually injured a ram he shot at.

Gregg admits taking a running shot at an aoudad on the last evening of his two-day hunt, and says he lost sight of the animal in the recoil. "Anderson said I hit it, and it was limping," he writes. He says they went to a vantage point and Anderson continued looking for the wounded ram without him. "He returned and said he saw it limping and found, in his words, two pin-head sized' drops of blood."

Because it was getting dark they did not continue to pursue the ram, and Anderson told him his hunt was over unless he wished to pursue the same animal. Gregg says there was no blood trail, and he was convinced the ram was not wounded. On the way out of the ranch, he says they stopped to speak with the landowner, and he heard Anderson tell the owner he had a shot and missed. Gregg concluded that, because Anderson is only allowed to take two rams off this property, he simply intended to resell the hunt.

In a long rebuttal from Anderson, he points out that the article we had published was several years old by the time Gregg booked a hunt and that the pricing had changed over that time. Furthermore, he says the pricing and inclusions were clearly stated in the documents he sent Greg at the time of booking.

Anderson also maintains that Gregg did injure a ram, hitting it in the upper right shoulder and breaking the animal's leg. He claims to have pointed out blood and........(continued)